I told my supervisor that I wanted to do my internship abroad, somewhere in Europe. And there I was in Zaragoza, Spain.

BSc. Simon Jansen, student

Whether you want to gain work experience at an architectural firm in London, meet students in Uppsala, Sweden or develop new products in Cambodia, an internship abroad is a valuable experience.

"Already during the first year of my studies I got the idea of an internship abroad. So, when I had to make the decision in the second year, it was an easy one. I told my supervisor that I wanted to do my internship abroad, somewhere in Europe. And there I was in Zaragoza, Spain.“

“Zaragoza is the fourth largest city in Spain, located between Madrid and Barcelona. I had never heard of it and I guess many people with me, but it certainly gives the impression of a large and vibrant city.”

“With my minimal knowledge of the Spanish language ("buenos dias senorita, dos cervezas por favor"), I can safely say that I had to get used to during the first weeks. Although many Spaniards speak a few words English, they simply refuse it. As a result I, as a real Dutchman, had to make myself clear using loud English and a lot of wild gestures.”

“At the university I did research into vision and object recognition in robotics. This means that I was mainly concerned with the software, which is surely different from the basic knowledge I gained during my studies, but all the more interesting. Moreover, the idea that I was developing something new really motivated me.”

“My colleagues were all very nice people. Communication was no problem, as long as they wanted to speak English. There was also a Japanese exchange student. His English was about as good as my Spanish, so that was quite difficult. Funnily enough, during the Christmas dinner we had a table with colleagues of four different nationalities because another student was born in Italy. This resulted in a fruitful exchange of customs and culture. Everyone was very surprised to find out that we still honor the King of Spain in our national anthem, while I could not understand the Spanish national anthem has no text. And the evening was complete when our Japanese colleague began to sing the national anthem of Japan."